Yuemeikeng Waterfall

The Yue Mei Keng Waterfall in full flow

Richard Saunders let me know about the Yuemeikeng Waterfall sometime ago and he mentioned that it was a relatively unknown and hidden place and so when I visited last year, I decided not to write about it to try and keep it that way.  But now it has been discovered by the masses and the trail is well tagged and well beaten, I think it’s OK to write a quick post.

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The Baiyang Waterfall, Taroko Gorge – 白楊瀑布

The Baiyang Waterfall and suspension bridge

The fantastic Baiyang Waterfall trail in Taroko Gorge was once an easy walk along a flat wide road, but since the mountain above the first tunnel collapsed, it’s now a much harder and longer climb to get there.  The trail began it’s life back in 1984 when the Taipower Company built the road to explore the valley’s potential for hydroelectric power.  Outrage at the planned damming and diversion of water led to the project being shelved and finally abandoned in 1986 when Taroko Gorge regained its national park status.  The road was then opened up to the public as a hiking trail.

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Touqian River, Yangmingshan – 頭前溪

Yangmingshan, the national park closest to Taipei, is most famous for it’s hiking and breath-taking views, but it is also a great place for rivertracing.  The Touqian River 頭前溪 to the north-east of the park is a particularly beautiful place to cool down and challenge yourself climbing some big waterfalls.

Ross plunges into a pool of water whilst rivertracing the Touqian River

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A Cave, a Lake and a Peak in Chiayi County

This weekend we shot down to Chiayi straight after work for a fantastic 2 day excursion in the mountains near Alishan.  The scenery and hiking were second to none taking in a beautiful peak (Luchushan 鹿屈山) with views of a snow-capped Yushan, an earthquake created-lake (Shuiyang Forest 水漾森林) and an enormous cave, fittingly called the thousand people cave (Qianrendong 千人洞).

The Thousand People Cave

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Xinxing Wild Hotsprings, Taoyuan County 新興溫泉

The Xinxing Wild Hotsprings 新興溫泉 are another wonderfully remote hotspring set in the bottom of a steep valley in Taoyuan county.  It takes a while to get there, about 3 hours by motorbike from Taipei but if you like riding, you’ll love the drive out on the number 7.

The Xinxing Hotsprings

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River Tracing near Wanli, Yangmingshan

This was the second time we’ve been to this spot.  The first time we actually found it by accident.  Our intention was to go to a completely different place but we couldn’t find it and so we just settled on anywhere, anywhere being next to the Dixi bridge.  This time was pretty much the same!  Not finding the river we where looking for, we decided to revisit this one.

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Silong Waterfall – 四龍瀑布

This a very short hike, maybe only ten minutes if you drive to the trail head but in the summer I’ll take any opportunity to get wet and cool off! To get there follow the 106 from Taipei towards Shen Keng. Just before a Formosa petrol station, there is a betel nut stand on the right, this is where you need to turn right. Follow the signposts for the Paozilun trail 炮子崙.

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Jia Jiu Liao – 加九寮

Wulai is such a great place. There are loads of hiking trails, waterfalls, the old street, free hotsprings and best of all 1km short of Wulai is Jia Jiu Liao – 加九寮.

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Sileng Wild Springs – 四稜溫泉

We tried almost a year ago to find this hot spring but poor planning conspired against us and we got to the river but not the spring. This time, armed with a map and a better idea of the trail we managed to find it.

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